~ Quirky semi-defunct Saskatoon folk rockers.

Star-Phoenix article

Rock opera melds two loves Charles able to combine passions for writing, music in Room to Breathe

Friday, June 14, 2002 Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

Michael A. Charles is a playwright and a musician. It was only a matter of time before his two passions merged.

The result is Room to Breathe, a rock opera being staged at the Mendel Art Gallery in conjunction with the exhibition, Qu’Appelle: Tales of Two Valleys.

“I consider writing equally as important to me as the songwriting,” said Charles. “This gives me an excuse to combine them.”

Room to Breathe, co-written by Andrew Hall, is about a young man quarantined at the Fort San tuberculosis sanatorium in the Qu’Appelle Valley in the early 1900s. Cut off from the outside world, he turns to fantasy.

“It has a melancholy tone but there’s elements I would have to characterize as pretty silly comedy.”

The work features more than a dozen original songs, a four-piece band, five actors plus video sequences. While it’s a fantasy there are nods to Fort San’s history including a scene about a visit by the Prince of Wales, who toured the San in 1919.

Charles and Hall have played together in various bands since they were teenagers. Their pop and jazz-influenced duo, The Band Known As Sea Water Bliss, has been around for about two years.

This is the second time they’ve collaborated on a project with the Mendel. Last year they wrote six songs to complement the works of Calgary artist John Will, performing them during the gallery’s Something on Sundays program.

“When they said there might be a chance to put on a rock opera I leapt at the opportunity.”

Room to Breathe opens Wednesday and runs to June 22 at 7 p.m. at the Mendel. Tickets are $10. Free admission to Tuesday’s preview and the June 23 matinee.

This is the official website of The Band Known As Sea Water Bliss (also known, for Googling purposes, as "The Band Known As Seawater Bliss"), the semi-defunct rock-n-roll combo based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We released an album in 2006:

Possibly you arrived at this page by following a link related to one of the videos Sea Water Bliss has put online over the years, many of them completely unrelated to the band and its music. You can learn more about these videos and their creator at The Michael A. Charles Online Presence.

If you're still not sure why you're here, you'll want to start by reading the Frequently Asked Questions on the About page, then listening to some of our music on the Songs page. After that, If you're still interested, you can dig into the history of our rock opera 404.